Rooikat 105

Rooikat 105

Rooikat 105

Britain

VI Rank

Battle rating:

AB	RB	SB
9.3	9.7	9.7

Class:

PREMIUM

Light tank

Purchase:9 090

Show in game

Description

The Rooikat 105 is a gift rank VI British tank destroyer with a battle rating of 9.3 (AB) and 9.7 (RB/SB). It was introduced in Update 1.97 "Viking Fury".

General info

Survivability and armour

Survivability is extremely poor.

The armor thickness ranges from 15 mm on the sides of the lower front plate to 30 mm near the gun breach of rolled homogenous armor. This will protect the crew from small arms fire only, most 20 mm guns and above can penetrate the armor with relative ease. HEAT shells will almost always hull-break the vehicle.

Wheels and suspension arms are made from 10 mm of structural steel.

The internal modules are relatively far apart and create a rather big empty space in the center of the vehicle. This gives it a small chance to survive APDS shells from the side when the turret is turned 90 degrees to either side, when the turret is pointed forward or backward, it fills this space with the ready ammo rack. Ammunition is also stored in the upper sides of the hull, as well as the rear of the turret.

The driver sits alone in the front of the vehicle while the commander, gunner and loader are placed rather high in the vehicle. This gives the turret crew a decent chance to survive side hits to the hull. A hit on the lower plate's left side (viewed from the front) will most likely kill the gunner, commander and driver and therefore destroy the vehicle.

It is possible to block some APDS shells with the gun breech or the engine and transmission, but most higher caliber shells will hull-break the vehicle instead.

Mobility

Mobility is extremely good. The engine will propel the vehicle to 131 km/h (AB) / 120 km/h (RB/SB) maximum on roads, though the average speed is around 40 to 65 km/h in light terrain, but acceleration is relatively poor. The wheeled chassis will allow to turn the vehicle without losing too much speed, though turning on the spot is not possible. When crossing deep snow or sand the driver sometimes can't decide which gear to use and the vehicle will be stuck at the speed of that specific gear change even if it potentially has the power to go faster.

Game Mode	Max Speed (km/h)		Weight (tons)	Engine power (horsepower)		Power-to-weight ratio (hp/ton)
	Forward	Reverse		Stock	Upgraded	Stock	Upgraded
Arcade	134	41	28.5	805	1,082	28.25	37.96
Realistic	121	37		501	567	17.58	19.89

Armaments

Main armament

The vehicle is armed with the South African GT-7 105 mm rifled cannon, which is almost identical to the L7A3 used on the German Leopard and Leopard A1A1. It gets the same ammunition choices of DM12 HEATFS, DM502 HESH and DM23 APDSFS as well as the same reload speed. The HEATFS and APDSFS can easily deal with most enemies presented at its battle-rating, exceptions are some late heavy tanks like the Object 279 or uparmored tanks like the T-55AM-1. The HESH is very situational, but might be good for light-skinned vehicles or helicopters. It is usually best to mostly take APDSFS shells, since it can easily handle every vehicle type, but unlike HEATFS doesn't detonate on bushes or fences and isn't stopped by ERA.

Additional armament

Some tanks are armed with several guns in one or more turrets. Evaluate the additional weaponry and give advice on its use. Describe the ammunition available for additional weaponry. Give advice on about how to use them and how to fill the ammunition storage. If there is no additional weaponry remove this subsection.

Machine guns

Offensive and anti-aircraft machine guns not only allow you to fight some aircraft but also are effective against lightly armoured vehicles. Evaluate machine guns and give recommendations on its use.

Usage in battles

Describe the tactics of playing in the vehicle, the features of using vehicles in the team and advice on tactics. Refrain from creating a "guide" - do not impose a single point of view but instead give the reader food for thought. Describe the most dangerous enemies and give recommendations on fighting them. If necessary, note the specifics of the game in different modes (AB, RB, SB).

Pros and cons

Summarise and briefly evaluate the vehicle in terms of its characteristics and combat effectiveness. Mark its pros and cons in a bulleted list. Try not to use more than 6 points for each of the characteristics. Avoid using categorical definitions such as "bad", "good" and the like - use substitutions with softer forms such as "inadequate" and "effective".

Pros:

Cons:

History

In 1990 an upgrade and redesign programme was started by Reumech OMC to customise the Rooikat for the international market, and by 1994 the development of a Rooikat 105 prototype with a 105mm rifled gun was completed.

The Rooikat 105 is designed for high mobility day and night combat operations. Passive image intensifiers and thermal imaging equipment for night driving, navigation and weapon deployment permit round-the-clock combat operations. The Rooikat 105 is equipped with a GT7 105mm anti-tank gun. The gun fires the full range of NATO full-pressure 105mm ammunition including generation I, II and III rounds. The gun, fitted with a 51-caliber thermal sleeve encased barrel, fires six rounds a minute. There are two 7.62mm machine guns, one co-axial to the main armament and one at the commander's position, for general purpose ground and air defence. The vehicle is equipped with two banks of 81mm smoke grenade launchers, mounted in a forward firing position on each side of the turret. The system is electrically operated. The smoke grenades form a dense protective smoke screen, which can be sustained using an exhaust smoke generator. The digital fire control system takes data from a suite of sensors and provides an automatic fire control solution. Automatic data input includes target range from a laser rangefinder, target speed and direction derived from tracking the target, crosswind speed, weapon tilt and the characteristics of the weapon. Manual data input includes ammunition type and environmental data. The fire control system allows the Rooikat to engage enemy targets while on the move across rough terrain. The time between laser ranging the target and firing is approximately two seconds. Three variations of fire directing systems are offered. The most complex system incorporates a primary stabilised gunner's sight, automatic computation and implementation of ballistic offset of the weapon, electro-mechanical gun control, stabilised main weapon, gunner's sight with day / night channel slaved to the main weapon and an independent panoramic commander's sight. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rooikat#Rooikat_105

Media

Excellent additions to the article would be video guides, screenshots from the game, and photos.

See also

Links to the articles on the War Thunder Wiki that you think will be useful for the reader, for example:

• reference to the series of the vehicles;
• links to approximate analogues of other nations and research trees.

External links

• [Devblog] Rooikat 105: The Cat With Bigger Claws

Britain tank destroyers
Infantry tank derivatives	Archer · Gun Carrier (3-in)
Light tank derivatives	Alecto I
M10 Achilles	Achilles · Achilles (65 Rg.)
Centurion derivatives	FV4005 · Conway
ATGM	Swingfire · Striker
Other	Tortoise · ▄M109A1
Canada	QF 3.7 Ram
South Africa	G6 · ZT3A2